What's in the Culture Kettle for museums?Center for the
Future of Museums Share This week at the CFM blog, guest blogger Peter Linett introduces Culture Kettle, "a new
organization dedicated to R&D in the cultural sector." It's a place for museum people to experiment with new forms and content — and he's looking for a few good cronies and collaborators.

Nonprofits and the information revolutionJohns Hopkins University Share Nonprofit organizations across the United States report considerable progress in keeping their organizations on the cutting edge of technological change, but many remain disappointed with their current level of information technology, according to a recent survey conducted by the Johns Hopkins Nonprofit Listening Post Project. Just 20 percent of museums in the survey say they make "significant" or "very significant" use of IT for
program delivery. ♦ AAM is a partner in the Listening Post Project.More

Information overload is not unique to digital ageNPR Share It is a constant complaint: We're choking on
information. The flood of data on the Web has reached mind boggling proportions, and it shows no signs of stopping. But wait, says Harvard professor Ann Blair — this is not a new condition. It's been part of the human experience for centuries. ♦ This aired a few days after Thanksgiving, so you might have missed it.More

Females plan to attend college more than malesMarketing Charts Share Female high school students are much more likely than males to plan on attending college right after graduation, according to a recent survey by the non-profits WKCD (What Kids Can Do) and the Lumina
Foundation. And when it comes to who influences high school students in their decision to attend college, family is decisively the biggest influencer.More

US Census Bureau releases new data tool for state, local governmentsSunshine News Share State and local governments — in fact, all Americans — now have a way to track demographic trends, even in the smallest cities. The U.S. Census Bureau released the first set of five-year data from the American Community Survey estimates. Until now, everyone from the governor to county administrators to city mayors had to rely on generally outdated data from the 2000 Census. Now, they can see more timely snapshots of
their communities, as the data is compiled into five-year pools and released once a year.More

Flintstone chic heralds a backlash against modern refinementFast Company Co.Design Share When it opens in late January, "Post Fossil: Excavating 21st Century Creation" at the Design Museum Holon in Israel will challenge visitors to imagine environments designed by cavemen instead of cyborgs. Curated by Li Edelkoort, founder of the trend-forecasting company Trend Union, the show is a reaction both to the excesses of the global economic meltdown and a growing backlash to the rampant digitization of our age.More

Podcast explores "Inner-tainment" trendCultural Trends Examiner Share Gary Malkin of Wisdom Films produces "Wisdom of the World" DVDs with titles like "Alchemy for the Soul" and "Beauty of Being." Those DVDs combine visual imagery with spoken words and musical works to create a unique new series of short, inspirational "films." Malkin labels this new art form "inner-tainment," and it again reminds us of the cultural trend of people increasingly looking inward through meditation and other forms.More

YouTube announces YouTube TrendsLos Angeles Times Share YouTube recently announced YouTube trends — which is similar to Google Trends, but for keeping track of what is popular on YouTube instead of what people are searching for on Google. By the way, Google owns YouTube. YouTube Trends will be a "destination for daily insight into the zeitgeist of the world's largest video site," wrote Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends manager, in a blog post.More

IBM lists its next 5 in 5 innovationsNext Big Future Share IBM unveils its fifth annual "Next Five in Five" — a list of innovations with the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years.More

Welcome to the holiday of the futureScottish Daily
Record Share Huge airships containing flats and floating aqua-village resorts could be our holiday hot-spots within 20 years. Trend forecasters The Future Laboratory came up with the predictions in a report on tourism in the year 2030 for U.K.-based Thomson Holidays. They claim the airships would be vast structures
featuring their own bars and restaurants.More

What's next: The future is already hereWhite Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group Share Edutainment consultant Randy White says, "The issue for most community location-based entertainment centers is that they are still in the past. We've seen a major shift in consumer values, attitudes and spending. The trends started over a decade ago. The Great Recession mainstreamed these trends as well as contributed some new ones, including a new value equation. These changes have and will continue to affect out-of-home
entertainment consumption and LBEs for many years to come." ♦ The same trends will shape the future of museums.More

Newspaper business model: Unsustainable in any formAdWeek Share U.S. newspapers as we know them will be extinct by 2017. So says Ross Dawson, a self-proclaimed "futurist" from Australia who released a global newspaper extinction time line in October. Dawson's latest time line makes country-by-country predictions based on factors including a nation's demographics, consumer behaviors and technological capacities.More

Looking ahead: The big trends of 2011Media Life Magazine Share Predicting what will be popular in pop culture is not an exact science. After all, a year ago, Snooki and The Situation sounded like the title of a failed '70s situation comedy and "Glee" was just that oddball music show on Fox. Who knew? But that doesn't keep people from trying to foresee trends in pop culture, politics, economics, technology and religion. And those trends are certainly important to media people, helping them
decide what media to use to best reach consumers and what creative approaches will be most resonant.More

Shifting the museum business modelMuseumNext Share Museum consultant Jim Richardson writes, "Museum budgets are coming under increasing pressure, and they are likely to get worse before they get better. European governments are talking up the concept of 'American style philanthropic funding' replacing public money. ... The concept of what a museum is has constantly evolved since the first privately owned collections, and perhaps this funding crunch will accelerate this
change."More

Break out of the museum!GQ Share According to GQ magazine, these are "the 10 most mind-blowing, energizing, unorthodox and flat-out-cool places to experience art in America. Okay, so a few are technically 'museums.' Just not the hushed, uptight kind you're used to."More

A Brooklyn art festival held in homes, bars and schoolsPSFK Share Arts in Bushwick, a Brooklyn-based volunteer organization that works to counter development-driven displacement in the community through art and creativity, recently held an arts festival called Beta
Spaces which consisted of a series of exhibitions and community discussions organized by local artists. The exhibitions were showcased, not in a gallery, but in bars, cafes and even at artists' homes.More

University of Rochester, Eastman House to increase collaborationRochester Democrat and Chronicle Share The George Eastman House and the University of Rochester announced an enhanced partnership recently. The new collaboration will lead to additional programs for community engagement, education and
research relating film to the arts and humanities, and science and technology. It will be the most extensive partnership between a museum and university, according to the American Association of Museums.More

Confronting the sniff testThe Wall Street
Journal Share The Museum of Arts and Design's new department — the Center of Olfactory Art, which was announced recently — comes with an automatic scoff factor. What would Picasso have to say about fragrance being considered a serious art form? Just how quickly is Beethoven spinning in his grave?More

Who uses location-based services the most?Venture Beat Share While only 4 percent of U.S. online adults have ever used a location-based service, like popular check-in app Foursquare, data from research firm Forrester shows that young adult males with college degrees appear to be the main user group. In addition to being the main user group, the group may also be heavy online influencers.More

Crowdrise is Edward Norton's fundraising platformThirdAge Share Edward Norton has long used his star power for good in the world. Norton was named one of this year's Barron's "Top 25 Givers" for his philanthropic efforts.
Now the actor is launching what he calls the "Facebook of philanthropy," a project called Crowdrise.More

Can the private sector save public parks?SmartPlanet Share Thousands upon thousands of parks in the United States are filthy, dangerous and badly maintained, managed by municipal governments on shoestring budgets, writes outspoken journalist John Stossel at Reason. Why shouldn't we outsource them to the private sector? ♦ And does the same logic apply to municipal museums?More